Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, the directors of Chabad Lubavitch of Mumbai, India, were killed in the attacks.

AP

Providence’s Rabbi Yehoshua Laufer, leader of the Chabad Lubavitch movement in Rhode Island, yesterday called the Mumbai attacks a “darkness” visited not only on the movement, but on the world.

“It’s overwhelming,” Laufer said. “It’s darkness trying to extinguish the light.”

Laufer, whose three sons are also rabbis in Rhode Island, said he has received many calls from concerned people asking what they can do in the wake of the attacks, which claimed the lives of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, who moved from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Mumbai to run a Chabad center.

His advice to people wanting to help?

“Go out and do a good deed –– not to memorialize the young couple that passed away, but to continue their legacy, which they endangered their lives for.”

That legacy, Laufer said, is the mission of the Chabad Lubavitch movement: helping people, of any denomination, who are in need. Nearly 4,000 Chabad centers, including four in Rhode Island, are in operation.

“We are creations of God and each one of us has to help one another,” the rabbi said. “All of us are connected to each other. A tragedy like this affects the whole world.”

Laufer said goodwill can overcome the brutal intentions of those responsible for the attacks in Mumbai.

“All good people in the world have the power of light. A little bit of light can push away a lot of darkness.”

LAUFER’S SON, Rabbi Yossi Laufer, of Chabad of West Bay, said in an e-mail yesterday that he joined colleagues and Jewish people around the world “in sorrow and sadness by the grave news that has emerged from Mumbai.”

Rabbi Yossi Laufer said: “The selflessness inherent in the work the Holtzbergs were doing, and in the way they lived their lives, is staggering.”

Rabbi Yossi Laufer said there will be a minyan — prayer service — in memory of the Holtzbergs tomorrow at 9 a.m. at Chabad of West Bay, 3871 Post Rd., Warwick.

With reports from Alan Rosenberg and projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

gwmiller@projo.com