A FATHER has won the right to stop his children from taking part in Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies after a court agreed they should be able to make their own religious choices.

The mother wanted her children to participate in their bar and bat mitzvahs - ceremonies that mark the beginning of boys and girls taking responsibility for their Jewish faith.

But the father, a Catholic who irregularly attends church, wanted them to choose their own religion in a ''voluntary and informed'' way, once they were of sufficient age and maturity.

The stoush played out in the Federal Magistrate's Court in Melbourne where the separated parents, known as Mr and Mrs Macri, asked the court to determine the religious future of their three children, a 10-year-old and eight-year-old twins.

Mr Macri, 44, asked for an injunction against his children participating in the ceremonies until they were older. He did not oppose his children observing Jewish holidays and events.