Firing the cantor

We have a permanent cantor in our synagogue who’s been working here for several years. But because of an argument in the community, this year, some congregants want to fire him. What does the law say on this issue?

It says in the books of halachic rulings that if a person was hired to be a cantor or a shophar-blower, it’s forbidden to fire him even after he performed his task only once. All the more so, it is forbidden to fire someone who became permanent in his position by performing his task three or more times. Because of this, today, if the synagogue is managed by Torah scholars, it’s accepted practice to agree with a cantor or with a shophar-blower that he’s being hired for performing this task only once. This way, they don’t have to hire him next year again if they don’t want to.

Thus, the law is that if a stipulation was made that the cantor is only being hired for a one-time stint, it’s permissible to fire him. But if this this stipulation was not made from the beginning, it’s forbidden to fire the cantor.

However, you wrote in your question, that the reason you want to fire this cantor is because of an argument between the congregants. In this case, you have to make sure that the cantor doesn’t have the intention to fulfill the obligation of public prayer only for some of the congregants, and not for others. If this is the case, then you certainly do have to fire this cantor and hire another one instead of this one.

Shulchan Oruch, section Orach Chaim, chapter 153, §22; Magen Avraham commentary, ibid., chapter 581, §6; Mishnah Beruruah, ibid., §11; Remo, ibid., §1