Yes. JSLI ordains cantors who complete our two-year Cantorial School, which covers nusach (traditional prayer melodies), liturgy and lifecycle officiation. Graduates are ordained as Cantor (Hazzan) and Spiritual Leader.
Ordination or investiture?
Different movements use different words. Some seminaries “invest” cantors rather than “ordain” them, to draw a line between the roles of cantor and rabbi. Others now ordain cantors outright, recognizing that cantors are full clergy. Either way, the meaning is similar: the cantor has been trained and recognized as a spiritual leader of the community.
More than a musician
Over the past few decades the cantor’s role has grown. A cantor isn’t only there for the music. Cantors teach, counsel, visit the sick, prepare b’nai mitzvah students, and officiate at weddings and funerals. Where a congregation has both, the rabbi and cantor serve side by side as a clergy team, and in many smaller communities the cantor is the sole spiritual leader.
That’s why JSLI’s cantorial students also take our lifecycle and pastoral care classes alongside our rabbinical students. See Can a Cantor Perform a Bar/Bat Mitzvah? and the Cantorial School page.