Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, has announced a $50 million bequest from the estate of Chicago philanthropists Rosaline Cohn and her daughter, Marcia.

The largest single gift in the university's 69-year history will establish the Jacob and Rosaline Cohn Endowed Scholarship and Fellowship Fund, income from which will provide financial aid for hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students each year. Rosaline and Jacob Cohn, a Lithuanian immigrant who founded the Continental Coffee Co. in Chicago in 1915, first gave $100 to Brandeis in 1951. Fifteen years later, in response to a solicitation letter from Brandeis' founding president, Abram Sachar, Rosaline Cohn returned a pledge card on which she checked off "considering the establishment of" and added "something" to describe the nature of the gift. In the mid-1970s, she established the Cohn Fund as a memorial to her husband, who had died in 1968, with a gift of $32,600 — stipulating that the scholarships support students in the social sciences and other academic disciplines that "hold promise for ameliorating the problems and conditions of today and tomorrow."

Continental Coffee was sold to Sysco Corp. in 1998. When Rosaline Cohn died in 2010 at the age of 97, she left her daughter, Marcia, her entire estate. The estate of Marcia Cohn, who died in 2015, maintained the same beneficiaries as her mother's.

"We are deeply moved that Mrs. Cohn was so inspired by Brandeis' values and mission that she chose our university to receive this remarkable gift," said Brandeis president Ron Liebowitz. "For current and future Brandeis students, this gift will be life-changing and will, as Mrs. Cohn envisioned, enable them to help make the world a better place....Like many generous philanthropic families, the Cohns were inspired by the very idea of Brandeis, a university founded by the Jewish community to be open to all students of talent, reflecting the Jewish values of reverence for academic excellence and dedication to using one's talents to improve the world."