After the bombing of Belgrade that began the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis Powers on 6 April 1941, she returned to Bitola where she was forced into a Jewish ghetto imposed by the Bulgarians in occupied Macedonia. She then became a supporter of the nascent communist Yugoslavian partisans while organizing meets of Jewish women in the ghetto to discuss women's rights. Ovadya formally became a member of the CPY in 1942. When the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Macedonia gave the Jewish community advance warning of the deportation of the Jews from Bitola on 10 March 1943 only a few Jews, Ovadya among them, took advantage of the shelter offered by the Communists.