Estreya Ovadya was born in Bitola, Yugoslavia (now in North Macedonia) on 25 December 1922 to a very poor Jewish family.

She joined the Workers' Movement faction of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) and was active in its women's sections.

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 Nazi Jewish ghetto due to antisemitic legislation imposed by the Bulgarian authorities.

Ovadya was appointed commissar of a battalion in the newly formed 7th Macedonian Brigade on 21 August and she was killed in combat with units of the Bulgarian Army near the Kajmakčalan peak four days later.

[4] After the war, Ovadya was posthumously awarded the Order of the People's Hero on 9 October 1953 and Bitola built a monument in her honor.