His amulets were distributed to voters before the Israeli election in May, 1996, in exchange for their votes for Benjamin Netanyahu and the Shas party.

He moved to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1923 and there changed his name from Diba to Kaduri to honor his father whom he had left in Baghdad.

He was reputed to have photographic memory and also mastered the Talmud by heart, including the adjoining Rashi and Tosafot commentaries.

[citation needed] During the period of Arab-Israeli friction that led up to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Porat Yosef Yeshivah was virtually turned into a fortress against frequent flashes of violence.

He did publish some articles criticizing those who engage in "practical Kabbalah", the popular dissemination of advice or amulets, often for a price.

[4] Over the years, thousands of people (mainly but not exclusively Sephardi Jews) would come to seek his advice, blessings and amulets which he would create specifically for the individual in need.

His rise to fame, though, began when his son, Rabbi David Kaduri, who ran a poultry store in the Bukharim Market, decided to found a proper yeshivah organization under his father.

Called Nachalat Yitzchak yeshiva, it was located adjacent to the family home in the Bukharim neighbourhood of Jerusalem.

After this time period had passed, the note was supposedly opened by these followers and was found to read, "ירים העם ויוכיח שדברו ותורתו עומדים‎" (Yarim ha-am veyokhiakh shedvaro vetorato omdim; translated as "he will raise the people and confirm that his word and law are standing"), which, by taking the first letter of each word, reads יהושוע‎, "Yehoshua".

Singer contended that the note does not spell Y’shua, the contraction of Yehoshua, used by messianic groups for the English translation (via Greek) “Jesus Christ”.