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Best Gambling Sites for Canadians in 2026: Gambling Nerd Ranks the Top Picks
Gambling Nerd approaches Canadian gambling sites with a simple question: does the platform actually work well for someone in Canada? Accepting Canadian registrations is only the beginning. CAD accounts, Interac availability, withdrawal times, licensing, provincial restrictions, games and sportsbook coverage can make two apparently similar sites very different once real money is involved.
There is also no universal “best” gambling site. An NHL bettor looking for player props has different priorities from someone interested in slots, live blackjack or poker-style games. Gambling Nerd’s Nerd Nook Hub adds an educational layer to that comparison by examining concepts such as RTP, house edge, probability, sportsbook margins and odds.
For a broader look at the market, the Gambling Nerd guide to gambling sites in Canada covers Canadian casinos, sports betting, banking and regional considerations.
Best Gambling Sites for Canadians in 2026
For Canadian players, Gambling Nerd currently places IZZI Casino first overall, with Betway standing out for slots, North Casino for its welcome package and Hell Spin for poker variants. Sports Interaction is also particularly relevant to players who want casino games and Canadian-focused sports betting within the same platform.
The important distinction is that these sites have different strengths. Instead of treating the ranking as five interchangeable casinos, Canadian players can use it to identify the platform that most closely matches how they actually play.
| Rank | Gambling Site | Gambling Nerd Score | Best For | CAD Support | Interac | Sportsbook |
| 1 | IZZI Casino | 4.5/5 | Overall experience | Yes | Check current cashier | No |
| 2 | Betway | 4.5/5 | Online slots | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 3 | North Casino | 4.5/5 | Welcome package | Yes | Yes | No |
| 4 | Hell Spin | 4.5/5 | Poker variants & game variety | Yes | Yes | No |
| 5 | Sports Interaction | 4/5 | Sports + casino | Yes | Available payment options vary | Yes |
Payment methods, promotions and availability can change, so current conditions should always be checked before opening or funding an account.
1. IZZI Casino – Best Overall for Canadians
Gambling Nerd score: 4.5/5
IZZI takes the overall position because its strengths aren’t concentrated in a single area. Gambling Nerd’s Canadian research highlights its game variety, promotions and flexible banking, while its minimum deposit starts at $5.
The casino has more than 600 video slots alongside digital table games, live blackjack, roulette and baccarat. Providers include Yggdrasil, Betsoft, BGaming and Evolution.
Banking includes cards, e-wallets and several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Tether.
That makes IZZI a better fit for someone looking for an all-around casino than a player choosing exclusively according to one promotion.
Main advantage: Strong balance between games, banking and promotions.
Potential drawback: Players specifically looking for Interac should confirm its current availability in the cashier before depositing.
Best for: Canadians who want a balanced casino rather than choosing primarily according to bonus size.
2. Betway – Best for Canadian Slot Players
Gambling Nerd score: 4.5/5
Betway is Gambling Nerd’s specialist pick for slots.
Its library includes established titles and providers, while progressive jackpot games provide another reason it stands apart from smaller casino platforms. Canadian players can also access familiar banking methods, including Interac.
Betway additionally operates a sportsbook, making it relevant to players who might spend Saturday on NHL markets and use the casino at another time without maintaining completely separate accounts.
The drawback is that its promotions shouldn’t automatically be considered the strongest simply because the platform itself is well established. Bonus terms still need to be compared independently.
Main advantage: Strong slot selection combined with casino and sportsbook products.
Potential drawback: Bonus value should be compared with newer, more promotion-focused competitors.
Best for: Slot players who value established software providers and also want access to sports betting.
3. North Casino – Best Welcome Package
Gambling Nerd score: 4.5/5
North Casino demonstrates why bonus size and bonus value aren’t necessarily the same thing.
Its Canadian welcome package advertises up to C5,000acrossthefirstfivedeposits.Thefirstdepositreceivesa100%matchuptoC1,000, followed by four 50% matches worth up to C$1,000 each.
The headline number is substantial, but so is another figure: 60x wagering requirements apply to the package.
That needs to be considered before opting in.
North Casino also supports CAD and Canadian-friendly banking methods including Interac. Its game library covers thousands of slots alongside table and live dealer games.
Main advantage: Large multi-deposit welcome package and broad game selection.
Potential drawback: The 60x wagering requirement makes reading the complete bonus terms particularly important.
Best for: Canadians who prioritize promotions but are comfortable evaluating wagering requirements before claiming them.
4. Hell Spin – Best for Poker Variants and Banking Choice
Gambling Nerd score: 4.5/5
Hell Spin is particularly useful for demonstrating the difference between a poker room and casino poker.
It doesn’t operate a traditional player-versus-player poker room, but its large casino library includes games such as Casino Hold’em and Caribbean Stud alongside live dealer poker formats.
Its banking selection is another strength for Canadians. Options include Interac, Interac e-Transfer, cards, e-wallets and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum.
The casino has more than 4,000 games, so players who regularly move between slots, table games and live dealer products have considerably more variety than they would at a smaller specialist platform.
Main advantage: Extensive game library and broad Canadian banking support.
Potential drawback: Players seeking traditional online poker against other players will need a dedicated poker room instead.
Best for: Casino players who enjoy poker variants and want Interac and crypto payment choices.
5. Sports Interaction – Best for Canadian Sports Fans
Gambling Nerd score: 4/5
Sports Interaction fills a different role in this ranking.
Its biggest attraction is the combination of a sportsbook and casino with a distinctly Canadian focus. CAD support and coverage of sports popular with Canadian audiences make it particularly relevant to people who consider sports betting their primary activity and casino games a secondary feature.
For an NHL bettor, that may be more useful than joining a casino with thousands more slots but a weaker sportsbook.
The trade-off is that its casino isn’t as extensive as some casino-first competitors.
Main advantage: Strong combination of Canadian sports betting and casino gaming.
Potential drawback: Casino-first players can find larger game libraries elsewhere.
Best for: Canadians who primarily follow sports but want casino games available through the same platform.
Best Gambling Sites That Accept Canadians
The phrase “Canadian gambling site” can be misleading because it can describe several different things.
A site might be operated within a provincial regulatory framework. Another could be an international gambling site that accepts Canadian customers. A third may specifically support Canadian dollars and local payment methods.
Those characteristics aren’t interchangeable.
This matters particularly when evaluating international sites. Accessibility tells you whether an account can be created from a location. Licensing tells you which regulatory framework governs the operator.
The Gambling Nerd-check: Don’t assume that accepting Canadian players means a gambling site is regulated by a Canadian provincial authority.
Which Canadian Gambling Site Fits You?
Someone who mainly plays slots should start the comparison with Betway. Its strength is its slot library rather than simply having the largest headline promotion.
A player prioritizing a substantial welcome package might look more closely at North Casino, but its 60x wagering requirement should be evaluated alongside the C$5,000 advertised package.
Hell Spin makes more sense for someone who regularly switches among slots, live dealer tables and poker-style casino games.
Sports Interaction has the clearest role for sports fans who want to combine betting with occasional casino play.
IZZI is the more balanced choice when none of those individual specializations dominates the decision.
This is ultimately more useful than declaring that one gambling site must be best for every Canadian.
Which Canadian Gambling Sites Accept Interac?
Interac is one of the clearest ways a gambling site can adapt its banking experience for Canadians.
Betway, North Casino and Hell Spin are among the ranked platforms offering Interac support. However, players should check the cashier before depositing because payment availability can change and deposit options aren’t necessarily identical to withdrawal options.
| Gambling Site | Interac | CAD | What to Check |
| Betway | Yes | Yes | Current deposit and withdrawal limits |
| North Casino | Yes | Yes | Minimums and maximums |
| Hell Spin | Yes | Yes | Interac vs Interac e-Transfer options |
Interac transactions can be considerably easier for someone accustomed to Canadian online banking than dealing with foreign currency or unfamiliar payment processors.
The detail beginners often miss is two-way support.
A casino might allow a payment method for deposits but require another method for withdrawals.
The Gambling Nerd-check: Before making an Interac deposit, verify whether Interac is also available for withdrawals on your account.
Why CAD Support Matters
Imagine starting with a C$200 bankroll.
With a CAD account, a C$10 wager represents exactly 5% of that starting amount. The deposit, balance, individual bets and eventual withdrawal remain easy to interpret in the same currency.
A USD-denominated account introduces exchange rates into that process.
That doesn’t automatically make a USD gambling account unsuitable for Canadians. It simply creates an additional variable, particularly if conversion fees or exchange-rate changes apply.
For a Canadian choosing between otherwise similar sites, native CAD support can therefore be a genuinely useful feature rather than a minor convenience.
The Gambling Nerd-check: Confirm the account’s base currency before depositing, not when requesting your first withdrawal.
Which Canadian Gambling Sites Have the Fastest Withdrawals?
There isn’t a single payout time that applies to every Canadian gambling site.
The payment method can matter almost as much as the operator.
Interac and e-wallet withdrawals can often be relatively quick. Cards and bank transfers may require additional business days. Crypto can process particularly quickly after the casino approves a withdrawal.
That last distinction matters.
Casino processing time describes how long the operator takes to approve and send a withdrawal.
Payment processing time describes what happens after the transaction enters Interac, an e-wallet, banking network or blockchain.
Gambling Nerd’s Canadian methodology includes testing withdrawals rather than relying entirely on advertised payout claims. Its real-money casino testing has also found particularly fast crypto withdrawals at some operators.
The Gambling Nerd-check: When a site says “fast payouts,” determine whether that claim refers to casino approval time, payment processing or the entire withdrawal.
Real Money Gambling Sites in Canada: What Does That Actually Mean?
“Real money gambling site” is a broad term.
It can describe an online casino where money is wagered on slots or blackjack, a sportsbook accepting wagers on the Stanley Cup, an online poker room or a platform combining several products.
It also distinguishes these platforms from free-play casino games and social casino products where the economic model and prize structure can work differently.
For beginners, this distinction matters because different real-money products require different comparisons.
A slot player should understand RTP and volatility. A sports bettor should understand odds and sportsbook margin. A poker player needs to distinguish games played against the house from poker played against other users.
The word “gambling” connects them, but the underlying products are very different.
Best Gambling Sites for Canadian Sports Fans
Canadian sports bettors have several locally relevant markets to consider.
NHL coverage is an obvious priority. A Toronto Maple Leafs or Edmonton Oilers fan may want player props, period markets, puck lines and live betting in addition to a simple game winner.
CFL bettors might care more about market depth around regular-season games and the Grey Cup.
Toronto Raptors fans introduce NBA player props and same-game markets, while Toronto Blue Jays followers need MLB coverage across a much longer season. NFL betting also remains important despite Canada not having an NFL franchise.
The best sportsbook shouldn’t therefore be determined solely by its welcome offer.
Check whether it actually provides strong coverage of the sports you follow, then compare the prices.
Two sportsbooks can offer the same Maple Leafs moneyline at different odds. That difference directly changes the potential return.
The Gambling Nerd-check: Compare sportsbook odds before sportsbook bonuses. A promotion is temporary; pricing affects every qualifying wager.
What Casino Games Should Canadians Compare?
A casino advertising 5,000 games isn’t automatically better than one offering 1,500.
The more useful question is what those games actually are.
Slot players should look at software providers, RTP information, volatility and bonus mechanics. Jackpot players may prioritize progressive networks. Live casino players need to consider table availability, limits and streaming quality.
Table rules can also affect the mathematics.
European roulette generally uses one zero, while standard American roulette adds a double zero. That changes the house edge despite both games being called roulette.
Blackjack works similarly. Rules concerning dealer actions, doubling and payouts can alter the mathematical return.
This is why Gambling Nerd treats game quality as more than a count of how many thumbnails appear in the lobby.
Are Bigger Canadian Gambling Bonuses Better?
Consider two hypothetical promotions.
Casino A offers 200% up to C$2,000.
Casino B offers 100% up to C$500.
The first appears obviously better until the terms are opened.
If Casino A requires 60x wagering while Casino B requires 20x, the comparison becomes substantially more complicated. Game contribution, expiry dates, maximum bets and cash-out restrictions can change it further.
North Casino provides a practical example. Its C$5,000 package is one of its most noticeable features, but the 60x wagering requirement belongs in the same conversation.
The Gambling Nerd-check: Don’t compare bonus percentages until you’ve compared what must be wagered to use them.
Best Gambling Sites in Ontario vs the Rest of Canada
Ontario needs to be treated separately when discussing Canadian online gambling.
The province has a competitive regulated iGaming market overseen through Ontario’s provincial framework. Players participating within that market use operators authorized for Ontario.
International gambling sites available elsewhere in Canada shouldn’t simply be presented as Ontario alternatives.
This means a national ranking needs an important qualification: a site that Gambling Nerd evaluates for players in Alberta, British Columbia or Quebec may not be the appropriate recommendation for someone located in Ontario.
Ontario players should confirm that an operator is authorized for the provincial market before creating an account.
The Gambling Nerd-check: A national “Canada” ranking doesn’t override provincial availability. Check your province before evaluating the rest of the site’s features.
Do the Best Gambling Sites Change by Province?
Yes, because Canada doesn’t have one identical online gambling environment from coast to coast.
Ontario has its competitive regulated iGaming framework. British Columbia operates PlayNow through the British Columbia Lottery Corporation. Quebec has its provincial offering through Loto-Québec, while other provinces follow their own models.
That creates a distinction between what exists provincially and which international gambling sites may be accessible from different parts of Canada.
Alberta is another particularly relevant market for online gambling research, while Quebec players may additionally care about French-language accessibility.
The practical lesson is simple: check provincial availability before spending time comparing bonuses, games or payment methods.
What Should Quebec Players Look For?
Quebec introduces several additional considerations.
CAD support and familiar banking remain important, but French-language accessibility may also matter. Players should determine whether the site itself, its terms and its customer support are available in a language they’re comfortable using.
Quebec also operates its own provincial gambling products through Loto-Québec.
International sites should therefore be evaluated separately rather than being presented as though they operate within the same provincial framework.
For a beginner, understanding that distinction is more important than immediately comparing welcome bonuses.
How Gambling Nerd Tests Canadian Gambling Sites
Gambling Nerd’s rankings aren’t based solely on reading promotional pages.
The site’s Canadian methodology includes practical testing of the player experience, including registration, deposits, mobile usability and withdrawal requests. Licensing, game software, customer support and bonus terms are also evaluated.
Canadian reviews introduce additional questions.
Does the platform support CAD? Which Canadian banking methods are actually available? How does the site handle withdrawals? Is it appropriate for the player’s province?
That testing matters because advertised specifications don’t always describe the complete user experience.
A casino can advertise thousands of games but have inconvenient banking. Another might promote fast withdrawals while requiring a lengthy internal approval process. A huge welcome offer can lose much of its appeal once the wagering conditions are examined.
The goal is therefore to assess the platform rather than one headline feature.
Nerd Nook Hub: The Site Doesn’t Change the Mathematics
The Nerd Nook Hub approach becomes particularly useful once players move beyond comparing operators.
Consider a slot advertised with 96% theoretical RTP.
That does not mean someone depositing C100shouldexpecttofinishasinglesessionwithC96. RTP is a theoretical long-run measurement calculated across a very large number of plays.
Sports betting has its own mathematics.
Decimal odds of 2.00 correspond to a 50% break-even probability before accounting for how the wider market has been priced. If another sportsbook offers a better price on the exact same outcome, the underlying basketball or hockey game hasn’t changed—the price has.
Bonuses, site design and payment methods don’t alter these underlying mathematical principles.
That’s why choosing a gambling site and understanding the games are two separate decisions.
The Gambling Nerd-Check Before Joining a Canadian Gambling Site
Start with location rather than the welcome bonus. Confirm that the platform is appropriate for your province and understand which regulatory framework applies.
Then check the currency. If you want to manage your bankroll in Canadian dollars, confirm CAD support.
Next comes banking. Verify that your preferred deposit method is available and, crucially, determine how you will withdraw.
After that, examine what you actually want to play. A sports bettor should compare markets and odds. A slot player should look at providers and games. Someone interested in both needs a platform that performs well in both areas.
Only then does it make sense to evaluate the welcome offer.
That produces a useful rule for Canadian beginners:
Don’t ask only whether a gambling site accepts Canadians. Ask whether it actually works well for Canadians.
Frequently Asked Questions About Canadian Gambling Sites
What are the best gambling sites in Canada?
Gambling Nerd currently ranks IZZI as its best overall option for Canadian casino players, while Betway stands out for slots, North Casino for its welcome package and Hell Spin for poker-style casino games. Sports Interaction is particularly relevant to players who prioritize sports betting alongside casino gaming.
Which gambling sites accept Canadians?
Numerous international gambling sites accept Canadian customers, but availability can differ by province. Acceptance from Canada also shouldn’t be confused with regulation by a Canadian provincial authority.
Which Canadian gambling sites accept Interac?
Betway, North Casino and Hell Spin are among the ranked sites offering Interac banking. Players should verify current cashier availability and whether Interac is supported for both deposits and withdrawals.
Which gambling sites accept Canadian dollars?
Several gambling sites targeting Canadians offer CAD-denominated accounts. CAD support can make deposits, bankroll tracking and withdrawals easier to understand by removing the need to continually translate balances into another currency.
What are the best gambling sites outside Ontario?
The answer depends on the player’s province and preferred product. Gambling Nerd evaluates international sites including IZZI, Betway, North Casino and Hell Spin for Canadian audiences, while Ontario requires separate treatment because of its regulated provincial market.
Are gambling sites different in Ontario?
Yes. Ontario operates a distinct competitive regulated online gambling market. Players in Ontario should verify that a platform is authorized for use within the province rather than assuming that a general Canadian recommendation applies there.
How long do Canadian gambling sites take to pay out?
It depends on the operator and withdrawal method. E-wallets, Interac and cryptocurrency can be relatively fast, while cards and bank transfers may take longer. Casino approval time should also be distinguished from the time required by the payment network.
What should Canadians check before joining a gambling site?
Province availability, licensing, CAD support, deposit and withdrawal methods, payout conditions, games or sports markets, bonus terms and player-control features should all be checked before depositing.
Finding the Best Gambling Site for You
The best gambling site for a Canadian NHL bettor doesn’t necessarily have to be the best casino for a slot player.
Someone following the Maple Leafs may prioritize hockey markets and sportsbook pricing. A slots player might care about software providers and Interac withdrawals. A Quebec user could put French-language support higher on the list, while an Ontario resident first needs to establish whether the operator is authorized for the provincial market.
That is why Gambling Nerd’s Canadian approach works better as a decision process than as a simple list of five brands.
For Gambling Nerd, the best gambling site for Canadians isn’t necessarily the platform advertising the biggest bonus. It’s the one that combines suitable games or betting markets, transparent terms, appropriate licensing and banking options that genuinely work for the individual Canadian player.
About Gambling Nerd
Gambling Nerd is the editorial brand and collective byline of GamblingNerd.com, an independent gambling media website that publishes experience-based reviews, guides, and analysis of online casinos, sportsbooks, and poker sites for gamblers of all experience levels worldwide. Its Nerd Nook Hub provides educational resources that break down sports betting mathematics, casino game theory, probability, odds, and other key concepts to help players make more informed decisions.
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Jake Lang led a protest against Mamdani and Muslims. Then the Nazis showed up to protest him.
Far-right activist Jake Lang led a march last week protesting Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s presence at the 9/11 25th anniversary memorial ceremony. The protest attracted swastika-sporting men describing themselves as Nazis; they were there to counterprotest Lang, whose mother is Jewish.
Around 100 demonstrators attended Lang’s march, which happened blocks away from the ceremony held at Ground Zero. Lang described the march on X as a “Great CRUSADE on Muslim SCUM Zohran Mamdani.”
The “crusade” was laden with anti-Muslim messaging, including a poster reading “Deport All Muslims.” About 40 counter-protesters arrived to oppose Lang. While most were antiracist protesters, seven were neo-Nazis. One counter-protester got into a physical altercation with someone from Lang’s march.
Lang is best known for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. He spent four years in prison, facing assault charges for attacking a police officer with a baseball bat, before being pardoned by President Donald Trump. In August, Lang lost a campaign to secure a Republican congressional nomination in Florida.
Though Lang’s mother is Jewish, he identifies as Christian, and has brandished wooden crosses at his marches, some of which he called “Christian Crusades.” Lang has publicly renounced his Judaism and the state of Israel, burning a copy of the Talmud and performing a Heil Hitler salute outside the AIPAC headquarters in D.C.
Nevertheless, seven men wearing swastika armbands — and one clad in an Elmo suit draped with a Palestinian flag as a cape — stood near Lang’s march holding a sign reading, “Jake Lang is a Jew.”
The men performed Sieg Heil salutes and, in an unusual move for self-identifying Nazis, chanted “Free, free Palestine,” alongside the declaration, “We are the real racists.” They passed out flyers reading “no more wars for Jews” and ranted about American soldiers lost in battles they said were directed by Israel.
“I want them out of our government,” said one of the men, Gregory Conte, a former schoolteacher who was fired for his white-nationalist ties. “And not just Zionists — Jews.”
The swastika-clad men drew a bevy of critics, including one man who told them, “I agree Israel did 9/11, but you guys are Nazis, man, you guys brought them to Palestine.”
One person filming the protest asked Conte, “Do you hate Jewish people?” He replied: “I’ve never had one do a good thing for me.” Conte then asked whether the man behind the camera was Jewish and he said he was; Conte refused to speak to him further, stating that he does not talk to Jews.
Footage showed Conte on the subway, this time without his armband, talking about how “Jake Lang is trying to start a war.” Independent journalist Talia Jane asked him, “Want to show them your armband?” Conte declined to take it out.
The post Jake Lang led a protest against Mamdani and Muslims. Then the Nazis showed up to protest him. appeared first on The Forward.
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Why antisemites are shopping in the kosher aisle
“I had sex with a Jewish billionaire and made him tell me why nobody in their family is fat.”
This is the opening line of an eight-minute viral AI video hawking an oregano oil supplement, claiming it is the closely guarded Jewish secret to svelte physiques.
The animated video, which is entirely in song, features a Black woman — the narrator who has sex with the Jewish billionaire — who works for a wealthy Jewish family that includes both black-hatted Orthodox men and women wearing kippot, a practice unheard of in Orthodox circles.
The woman sings about her confusion over the family’s slim physiques despite the fact that they never exercise and eat big meals of brisket and “challah bread” (incorrectly pronounced with a hard “ch”). But when she begins a romance with the son, they reveal that they all take an oregano oil supplement that gets rid of the “parasites” that regular Americans get “from food, water — everywhere.” The woman begins to take the oil and gives it to her mother; both become magically healthy.
The ads seem like an outgrowth of the popularity of the term goyslop, the false conspiracy that Jews are feeding the masses heavily processed, nutritionally bankrupt foods in order to weaken non-Jews so they are easier to control. (Jews in this conspiratorial universe run the world, of course.) The implied flipside, it seems, is that Jews eat secret, incredibly healthy, strengthening sustenance, which remains hidden from everyone else.
Goyslop isn’t a new idea; in fact, the idea that Jews had a secret food that kept them healthier than everyone else is part of old Russian folklore. But the term found mass visibility thanks to the mainstreaming of scientifically dubious alternative health ideology popularized by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and is particularly popular among naturopathic health influencers who are skeptical of pasteurization and Western medicine. (RFK has not himself used the term.)
Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising, then, that some conspiratorial influencers are advising their followers to look for a few supposedly secret symbols in the grocery store that they believe prove the food is safer and higher quality: hechshers.
“If you look on the labels, you’ll see a ‘U’ in the corner, or sometimes it’ll say kosher,” said one influencer in a viral video of this ilk. “If the 🧃 are eating and drinking it, it’s a lot safer than the food that they’re giving us.” She also warns against eating pork and encourages her followers to shop in the kosher aisle. (The influencer bleeps out the word “Jews” in her video, and replaces it in the closed captions with a juicebox emoji, referencing a common code — “juice” — that antisemites often use to talk about Jews while avoiding censorship.)
“Goyslop is the poison that they feed us, goyim, we’re the cattle, we’re subhuman to these people,” said antisemitic influencer Ryan Matta, in another guide to the grocery store pointing out hechshers. “So if you’re not getting the bottles that are labeled with the K or the special label, then it’s not kosher. And if it’s not kosher, it’s poison.”
(Matta, who does not seem to understand any actual rules of kosher, spends much of the video trying to find a kosher version of his preferred pasta sauce flavor: Italian sausage.)
Resilia, the company hawking its supplements in the ad, has made numerous AI singing ads; many have received multiple millions of views. The ads aren’t always about Jews; one — confusingly for a product supposed to make you healthier — features a decrepit singing skeleton. Others namedrop different ethnic groups like Norwegians. Almost all of them involve cheating or illicit affairs, as is common in AI-generated videos posted across the internet, many of which feature soap operas starring families of fruit or sodas.
But more than one of the Resilia ads features Jews hiding health secrets. Another one, with 4.3 million views on YouTube, has nearly the same plot as the first, just gender-swapped — a male gardener has an affair with the wife of a Jewish billionaire who, after making him promise to keep it secret, tells him that Resilia’s garlic supplements are the key to the family’s heart health and lack of diabetes.
Goyslop has become a casual and ubiquitous meme — teenagers throw it around to refer to low-quality food like chips or hot dogs, but also bad movies and TV. They are often blaming corporations, not Jews, for feeding the masses swill. They’re also, almost always at least, joking.
Still, the underlying idea — that unhealthy food is somehow, nefariously, connected to Jews — persists through the language, even if the majority of jokesters don’t understand the reference.
Perhaps that’s how we got the Resilia ad about secret Jewish oregano oil supplements. It’s not clear if the company purposefully inserted Jewish content into some of their ads; the AI customer service bot on the company website denied any relationship to Judaism. Resilia is purported to have thousands of these AI singing ads, so the Jewish narrative may purely be a result of the algorithmic machine resurfacing the antisemitism it consumed in its training data.
In any case, however healthy the supplements Resilia sells might claim to be, the ad is its own form of slop — AI slop.
The post Why antisemites are shopping in the kosher aisle appeared first on The Forward.
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Israel’s culture minister called this documentary about IDF tactics ‘vile.’ It deserves to be seen.
VENICE — At its premiere here last week, towards the end of the 83th Venice International Film Festival, Naza, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s documentary about Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, received a 25-minute-long standing ovation, a record at the festival. Two nights later, the film won the festival’s Special Jury Prize. By Sunday, Israel’s culture minister, Miki Zohar, was calling the film “vile,” describing it as treason and threatening to revoke its directors’ citizenship. Zohar invoked his reform of cinema funding, saying Israelis should no longer have to pay for work that harms the army and the state.
I left the press screening of Naza angry, depressed and utterly convinced of its importance. Its account of the procedures that govern the deaths of civilians is devastating precisely because so much of the testimony sounds like people describing an ordinary working day. The film will have its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival on Sept. 26. It deserves to be seen, and debated with considerably more patience than some of its detractors have displayed.
Venice has traditionally worn its politics more lightly than Berlin, where a filmmaker’s acceptance speech can cause an international incident. This year, however, festival director Alberto Barbera programmed a competition that invited controversy. Alongside Naza was Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s DAU, which drew Ukrainian objections over the production’s Russian connections (including to Sergei Adoniev, a businessman who has been sanctioned by Ukraine and the U.S.) In the run-up to the festival, Barbera defended DAU as a denunciation of totalitarianism. Both films are international productions by directors whose countries have become objects of international opprobrium. Both venture into their societies’ heart of darkness. Barbera deserves enormous credit for programming them both in the main section of the world’s oldest film festival despite the objections of many.
Berlin supplies a cautionary precedent. No Other Land, the Oscar-winning documentary Abraham and Szor made with Palestinians Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, premiered there in 2024, where it won the festival’s documentary prize. After Abraham and Adra gave speeches condemning Israel’s policy of apartheid in the West Bank, the German culture minister Claudia Roth, caught on camera applauding at the ceremony, clarified that her applause had been intended for the Israeli director. I shudder to imagine the official response Naza might have elicited there. Venice at least offered an opportunity to discuss what was on screen.
The film, which presents testimonies from 24 serving and former military personnel, grew out of years of investigative reporting. Produced by the British newspaper the Guardian and JW Films, in collaboration with the Israeli-Palestinian magazine +972 and its news website Local Call, it builds on Abraham’s investigations into Israeli intelligence and his work with Guardian journalist Harry Davies. Revelations about targeting systems had appeared in print while filming was underway and were subsequently reported on by both The New York Times and Washington Post. All this means that the disclosures made in Naza are not brand new. However, the stark, focused and lean approach that Abraham and Szor take in the documentary ensure that the information hits home with chilling force.
The film’s unusual title is the Hebrew term for collateral damage — specifically, the anticipated civilian toll of a military strike in Gaza. Speaking to Abraham from a series of Tel Aviv rooftops at night, the interviewees, whose appearances and voices are digitally disguised, explain with patient detachment how targets in Gaza are identified and eliminated. One of the tools used to identify suspected militants is an AI system called Lavender. The frightening efficiency of such technology is discussed alongside the human decisions that determine what constitutes an acceptable loss.
One of the most disturbing claims has prompted a specific military rebuttal. An interviewee says a strike was once approved with 500 civilian deaths anticipated; he does not know how many were actually killed. The IDF claims it has never planned, approved or conducted a strike expecting anything near that toll, and challenges the filmmakers’ ability to verify the account. It also maintains that humans authorize strikes and questions the witnesses’ competence to discuss broader strategy.
The film’s restraint gives incendiary testimony such as this time to register. For the majority of the film, we only glimpse the interviewees’ faces in silhouette and watch as they crudely draw diagrams to explain the logistics of a military strike, say, on a crowded building. Every so often the camera wanders off the roof, peering into the illuminated homes and high-rise office buildings of Tel Aviv at night. The point is precisely to convey an unsettling sense of normalcy.
I was particularly struck by the absence of the racist invective I had half expected. Some interviewees describe themselves as educated, liberal people. Their accounts nevertheless reveal a callous disregard for civilian causalities. One recalls the pleasure of a job well done. “It’s so much fun,” he says of reaching his targets and we hear in his voice how the remote killings he takes part in gives him an indescribable rush. After a pause, he tells Abraham that as someone raised in the Israeli context, someone who had got to visit the death camps in Poland, he always considered and asked himself how they could do what they did. “For me the Nazis are evil,” he says. “So what does that make me?” It is perhaps the film’s most damning exchange.
One of Naza’s strength as a documentary is that it does not demand agreement that Israel is committing war crimes, including genocide, before its investigation begins. That gives it a chance to reach people who have defended Israel and remain capable of reconsidering their position.
Some of the most vociferous criticism of Naza has not come from IDF spokesmen or other Israeli officials. Almost immediately after the premiere, footage from the film’s lengthy ovation (where Abraham and Szor stand looking intensely uncomfortable and withdrawn) went viral, with numerous commentators on X and other platforms making ugly accusations against the filmmakers, including for granting anonymity to the whistleblowers who feature in the film.
“A viscerally nauseating spectacle. Imagine SS officers, shielded and protected by anonymity, getting a 25-minute standing ovation for recounting their tortures and murders. Criminal perpetrators should only be heard at their trials not at gala celebrations,” read one tweet that has been viewed close to 150,000 times. Though the language of that post is particularly incendiary, the sentiment it expresses is surprisingly widespread on social media.
Confidentiality was a condition of obtaining these accounts, a standard journalistic arrangement that confers no clemency. At the press conference, Abraham described that his sources were motivated variously by remorse and professional pride. He affirmed that his goal was to keep the victims of Gaza at the film’s center — and not to congratulate its witnesses.
The tenor of this debate recalls Nadav Lapid’s withdrawal from the Marseille film festival in June after boycott calls. His Yes, an infernal satire of post-Oct. 7 society, is a ferocious attack on Israeli complacency. It would take considerable ingenuity or imagination to claim that either it or Naza is an apology for Israel.
Accepting his award in Venice, Abraham said that he made Naza because “the denial of a crime is what helps it persist.” He later pledged to distribute the film as widely as possible in Israel. The interviewees, he explained, “spoke in Hebrew because they wanted to reach out to the Israeli public.” Not surprisingly, the film, sight unseen, has already been widely condemned within Israel. Former defense minister and opposition politician Avigdor Lieberman called the directors “haters of Israel” and accused them of turning Oct. 7 into a blood libel. Such accusations should make the necessity to reach Israeli viewers even more urgent.
Days after the film’s victory in Venice, Haaretz ran an editorial with the blunt headline, “Israelis Must Finally Confront What Israel Has Done in Gaza.” After years of trying to “air dirty laundry at home” with limited success, Abraham and Szor now had found in the Venice Film Festival a major platform where the conclusions of their investigations were impossible to ignore. The editorial’s key sentence is also its shortest: “Israel’s problem is not public relations, but reality.”
Naza only leaves the rooftops of Tel Aviv for two brief occasions. In the first of these, we see archival footage of a young Benjamin Netanyahu promoting his 1995 book Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism, In the clip, a much-younger Netanyahu defines terrorism as a policy of deliberately killing and maiming civilians to advance political goals. Bibi’s words hang uncomfortably over the rest of the film, inviting and daring viewers to draw their own conclusions.
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