“I was really there thinking of Jerry and Dan, of what good people they are,” he said, adding that he and Ms. Clickner were not in court as official representatives of Dor Hadash. “It was important I think for somebody to be there on their behalf, and also as a member of the congregation, to say and to represent visually that we are still here and we are going to be here.”

Image Robert Bowers was charged with the murders of 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Credit... via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

[Read more about the shooting suspect, who frequently reposted anti-Semitic content on social media.]

After the hearing, the White House announced that President Trump would be visiting Pittsburgh on Tuesday with the first lady, a decision that had drawn criticism — and prompted disagreement within Pittsburgh’s Jewish community — before it was even announced.

Two Jewish groups had called on Mr. Trump earlier in the day to back down from inflammatory rhetoric that they said seemed to be encouraging the most radical fringes of American society.

The Pittsburgh chapter of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, a progressive Jewish group focused on social justice in the United States, said in an open letter to Mr. Trump that he was “not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism.”

The letter, which had 26,000 signatures on Monday morning, said Mr. Trump’s language had given confidence to white nationalists.

“For the past three years your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement,” the letter said. “You yourself called the murderer evil, but yesterday’s violence is the direct culmination of your influence.”