Rabbi Sid Schwarz, the founder and director of the 20-year-old Rockville-based Panim: The Institute for Jewish Leadership & Values, is often asked if his "child" could survive without his guidance.

The answer to that question is "yes," and comes in the form of a timely adoption by the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization for Jewish teens.

By the end of the summer, Panim is to become a division of BBYO, merging both its operations and key staffers into the youth organization's D.C. headquarters, according to leaders of both groups.

Together, the groups aim to create a teen army of Jewish shock troops who have the power to rally around a political cause with the proverbial flip of a switch, according to Matt Grossman, BBYO's executive director.

"We can create a valuable resource to the American Jewish community, where they can flip a switch and all of the sudden have tens of thousands of young people supporting the issues of concern," Grossman said, explaining that the Panim division will primarily house and operate the group's social service initiatives.

"It's not about bringing over four or five great programs that Panim's been doing for 20 years and putting them into BBYO" and running them cheaper, he said. It's about "building a movement."

He wants to reach out to Jewish communal organizations "that need that grassroots advocacy power, and figure out how we can lend value. ... This is about wholesale politics, grassroots organizing to the core."

Before the troops form, however, the groups must work out the details of a full-scale integration, which will include thinning out Panim's Rockville staff and moving its operations -- Panim, which moved into new offices in spring 2008, is breaking its lease -- to BBYO's K Street office. Once settled, the Panim division will be led by Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block, the group's current director of education.

"We have some things that they desperately want, and they have some things that we desperately want," said Schwarz, explaining that on his end, Panim would be gaining BBYO's technological platform, which reaches out to teens using Facebook, Twitter and a plethora of other new media, as well as its "national network" of staffers and teens.

Panim, on the other hand, "has one of the best program mixes out there" and is unrivaled in the areas of informal Jewish programming, social action and justice initiatives, community service programs and advocacy training, according to Schwarz.

Concentrating primarily on getting teens politically engaged, Panim's flagship program is the Panim el Panim seminar, which, since 1988, has brought 10th-12th-graders from around the country to the nation's capital to study public policy and social activism through a Jewish lens.

In addition, the group pioneered a Jewish Civics Initiative in 1994, which provides teens a yearlong learning experience in a Jewish community institution, such as a congregational school or youth group. Similarly, the group's J-Serve initiative offers teens a daylong opportunity to perform community service projects in their local communities.

The bulk of these programs will likely continue after Panim merges with BBYO.

Following Schwarz's decision last summer to retire this year, two separate committees were formed. The first was given the task of finding a new leader who could replace Schwarz. The second was charged with examining alternative alliances that could be created with other Jewish organizations, according Jerry Herman, Panim's board chair.

"As a result of Sid stepping down, the organization looked at other opportunities," Herman said, adding that a merger was always a possibility, but not a given right off the bat.

Both Schwarz and Herman also scoffed at the notion that the organization couldn't possibly survive sans its founder.

Admitting that "leadership transitions, even in the best of times, are hard," Schwarz said the main questions were "How does Panim move forward, what does the post-founder stage look like?" (Schwarz said he will remain part of the team, acting as a "senior consultant" once the merger takes effect. In his downtime, he will focus on his writing and teaching and act as an independent consultant for various Jewish organizations.)

The economy was a factor in the merger.

"Would this have happened if the economy hadn't gone south?" Schwarz rhetorically asked. "It's one of those speculative things that I can't answer, but clearly it was a contributing factor."

BBYO's Grossman seconded that notion, but added that the merger would not have been considered if Panim were not on firm fiscal footing. "We wouldn't even consider this if we got the sense that they were in trouble financially," he said. "At this point in time, every organization has to be careful that it enters into relationships, partnerships that enhance their ability to meet their mission."

Schwarz believes the philanthropic community will likely reward the Panim-BBYO hybrid.

Within the Jewish community, "people are saying ... that if there is any positive outcome of this economic downturn, it's that organizations have to work smarter for less money," Schwarz explained.

Both organizations also are working in tandem, tapping donors to raise the necessary funds to pay for the merger.

"We've been working with a group of philanthropists with the hope of getting multiyear commitments so this can have sustainability to really make a difference," Grossman explained, adding that Panim will not draw funds from BBYO's current budget.

In fact, Panim will continue to raise a portion of its operating budget from its current donors. (A Panim fund-raising dinner on Sunday evening will honor Schwarz.)

Some of the merger's major "sticking points," however, have not been worked out, Schwarz said.

It's unclear "how big" the Panim division will be in BBYO, a relatively major issue given that the group's size within the organization will determine "how many people are going over" to the new operation. Thus, it is still unclear how many of its 12 staff members will be terminated.

Financial restraints, Schwarz said, also have led Panim to discontinue its fellowship program for graduating college seniors. In addition to regular staffers, the group retains four paid fellows who work Panim for a year. Once the current set of fellows finishes in August, the program will be discontinued.

In addition, Panim will also discontinue a fellowship program to train rabbinical students, which is typically held two times a year.

Rockville's Laura Epstein has been involved with both organizations.

"I think it's really exciting because both organizations work to get teens involved in the community," said Epstein, who participated last summer in Panim Works, a summer learning program held on a Navajo Indian reservation.

"BBYO has all these teens and Panim has all these really great programs ... but this partnership will combine all the programs within BBYO so more teens can get involved with programs they're passionate about," said the 17-year-old, who also serves as the president of BBYO's D.C. council.

Ilana Avergun, a Potomac resident who serves as BBYO's international vice president of membership, also viewed the merger as an opportunity to boost her political advocacy prowess.

"The thing I love to do and teens love to do is social action and advocacy," said the 17-year-old. "Panim is what will take us that one step further and lead us to other opportunities."